# 1940 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1940 to Wales and its people.

## Incumbents

* Archbishop of Wales – Charles Green, Bishop of Bangor
* Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales – Crwys

## Events

* 21 January - Lowest ever temperature recorded in Wales, -23.3 °C (-9.9 °F) at Rhayader.
* 27 January - A freak ice storm across the UK brings down telephone and electricity lines in many parts of Wales.
* 3 March - The steamer Cato is damaged by a mine off Nash Point and 13 of the crew are killed.
* March - The scenic railway opens at Barry Island Pleasure Park.
* May
** The newly created Coalition Government includes Hugh Dalton as Minister of Economic Warfare.
** Alun Lewis enlists.
* 8 May - Three Nazi German Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111s crash in separate incidents over Wales: one near Wrexham, one at Malpas in Denbighshire, and one at Bagillt, Flint. In all nine crew are killed and four captured.
* 3 July - Cardiff is bombed for the first time.
* 9 July - Cardiff suffers its first bombing fatalities.
* 10 July - Ten people are killed in an air raid on Swansea Docks, as shipping convoys become a target.
* 11 July - Communist minister and poet Thomas Evan Nicholas ("Niclas y Glais") and his son are arrested and interned for "endeavouring to impede recruitment to HM Forces". Nicholas is eventually released on 20 October.
* 11 August - Seventeen people are killed in an air raid on Manselton, Swansea.
* 14 August - Three German Heinkel 111s are shot down during an air-raid on Cardiff, and another over North Wales after a raid on RAF Hawarden.
* 22 August - A steamer, the Thorold, is sunk by German aircraft off the Skerries. Ten crew are killed.
* 2 September - 33 people are killed in an air raid on Swansea.
* 3 September - Eleven people are killed in an air raid on Cardiff.
* 4 September - A German Junkers Ju 88 crashes near Machynlleth. Four crew and a Gestapo officer are captured.
* 13 September - A German Heinkel 111 crashes into a house in Newport, Monmouthshire.
* 22 November - The steamer Pikepool is damaged by a mine off Linney Head, Pembrokeshire, with the loss of 17 crew.
* The Urdd changes its policy to include 16- to 25-year-olds.
* Gwilym Williams becomes chaplain of St David's College, Lampeter.
* Percy Cudlipp becomes editor of the Daily Herald.
* Alun Talfan Davies and his brother Aneirin found the publishing house Llyfrau'r Dryw.

## Arts and literature

* Lewis Casson directs John Gielgud in King Lear.

### Awards

* National Eisteddfod of Wales (held in Bangor (radio))
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - withheld
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - T. Rowland Hughes
* National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - withheld

### New books

* Richard Bennett - Cyfrol Goffa Richard Bennett
* Clara Novello Davies - The Life I Have Loved
* David Delta Edwards - Rhedeg ar ôl y Cysgodion
* John Cowper Powys - Owen Glendower (U.S. publication)
* Howard Spring - Fame is the Spur
* Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (published 2011; partially set in Wales, 1940)

### Music

* Mai Jones & Lyn Joshua - "We'll Keep a Welcome" (performed for the first time in the forces' variety show, Welsh Rarebit on 29 February)
* Grace Williams - Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (score dated 9 February)

## Film

* March 25 - Plaza Cinema opens in Port Talbot.
* April 6 - Paul Robeson and Rachel Thomas star in The Proud Valley (cinematic release)

## Broadcasting

* 25 February - The Proud Valley is the first film to have its première on radio, when the BBC broadcasts a 60-minute version.
* May - The BBC Radio Variety Department relocates to Bangor because of wartime disruption; it will broadcast from here until August 1943.
* August - The National Eisteddfod of Wales is broadcast on the British Home Service, including 15 minutes each for the crown and chair ceremonies.

## Sport

* Football
** 13 April - Wales defeat England 1 - 0.
* Quoits - Jack Price wins the Welsh championship for the third time.

## Births

* 4 January - Brian Josephson, theoretical physicist
* 17 January - Leighton Rees, darts champion (died 2003)
* 23 January - Ted Rowlands, politician
* 1 March - David Broome, show jumping champion
* 16 May - Sir Gareth Roberts, physicist (died 2007)
* 7 June - Tom Jones, singer
* 29 June - John Dawes, rugby player (died 2021)
* 17 July - C. W. Nicol, Japanese writer and environmentalist (died 2020 in Japan)
* 3 September - Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Uruguayan writer of Welsh descent
* 20 September - Anna Pavord, gardening writer
* 1 October - Atarah Ben-Tovim, flautist and children's concert promoter (died 2022)
* 14 October - Christopher Timothy, actor
* 31 October - Eric Griffiths, skiffle guitarist with The Quarrymen (died 2005)
* 4 November - Daniel Sperber, Talmudic scholar
* 30 November - Peter Shreeves, footballer, coach and manager
* 5 December
** Michael Jones, medieval historian
** "Exotic" Adrian Street, professional wrestler (died 2023)
* 24 December - John Marek, politician
* date unknown
** Donald Evans, Welsh-language poet
** Keith Miles, detective novelist and screenwriter

## Deaths

* 12 February - William Edwards, educationist, 89
* 21 February - Sir Alfred Edward Lewis, banker, 71
* 15 March - John Davies, author, 71
* 20 March - William Thomas Edwards (Gwilym Deudraeth), poet
* 7 April - Ernest Rowland, priest and Wales international rugby player, 75
* 27 April - Fred Cornish, Wales international rugby player
* 23 May - Hugh Hesketh Hughes, polo player, 37 (killed in action)
* 4 June - Owen Picton Davies, businessman and politician, 68
* 25 June - Stanley Winmill, Wales international rugby union player, 51
* 3 July - George Bevan Bowen, landowner, 82
* 8 August - Daniel Lleufer Thomas, lawyer and biographer, 76
* 20 August - Henry Maldwyn Hughes, Wesleyan minister
* 26 September - W. H. Davies, poet and author, 69
* 9 October - Sir Wilfred Grenfell, medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador
* 9 November - Gwilym Owen, physicist
* 15 December
** Robert Thomas Jones, quarrymen's leader, 66
** Sir David Richard Llewellyn, 1st Baronet, industrialist